Hawai'i

Hello all!

So let's see if I can catch you up in a short amount of time-taken-to-read.
I know some of you probably haven't heard from me since my last emails in Australia, so I guess I'll begin there.

I flew back to Washington in April, after being in Brisbane Australia with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) for 7 months, and stayed with my parents and have been working up until this December. During that time, Lindsey (a friend from Australia) and I applied to a school with YWAM called the School of Photography (SoP). Lindsey was accepted in June and I was accepted in July.

A little about the school: the School of Photography is a 12 week intensive course taking place at the YWAM University of the Nations in Kona Hawai'i, focusing only on photography and how knowing God plays a role in that talent. It begins January 4th and the credit from the school can be applied to a degree through the University of the Nations, and can occasionally be transfered to other schools on the mainland. There are 16 people accepted into the school and it only runs once a year.

Since this is the only YWAM SoP in the world (sometimes they will open similar schools in various nations), it gains a lot of attention in the form of inquisitions, applications, etc.
Since some people are accepted into a school a year or a year and a half in advance, there is a waiting list in case people that hold a 'top 16 spot' end up canceling due to a change in circumstances, finances or plans.

So when Lindsey was accepted she was placed at #14 on the waiting list. By the time I was accepted she had moved up to spot #7 and I was placed in at #9. Yet from that point on, we didn't move an inch in the line up.

In October however, we decided it was time to take a step of faith and chose to purchase one-way plane tickets to Kona in time to be there for registration day and the first day of class, just in case we were accepted, we wanted to be ready. And if we weren't then hey! sweet vacation in Hawai'i!

Yet watch the ball roll - after we purchased the plane tickets and began praying harder, we averaged one spot a week in moving up on the list. On Wednesday, Lindsey flew up from Oklahoma to visit and get ready for our departure. As of Saturday, Lindsey held the #1 spot on the waiting list into the school, and I had the #2.
And then came Sunday... bum bum bummmmm.

We received a phone call from the school leader that there had been a last minute cancellation and Lindsey was in! YAY!
So that put me at #1 on the waiting list, with fingers crossed for my own acceptance.

On Monday we went snowboarding, Tuesday we packed and headed up to Spokane to 'sleep' before our early Wednesday morning flight.
This is how it went:
Spokane - Seattle
Seattle - Oakland CA
OH WAIT. Nope. That flight was canceled. So instead they plopped us onto a flight into LA (Hooray, it's LA! *name that band!) and let us have a nice 6 hour layover in LAX until we flew on to Kona, arriving at 8pm Kona time (Hawai'i time is 2 hours behind PST).

We arrived and had a funeral for the sake of the mourners, as Lindsey's bag didn't arrive. We all wore black.
We were picked up at the airport by a lovely lady named Mrs. Wong and sped off up the mountain (aka volcano) to her and her husbands home. They were extremely hospitable and were generous with their time.

Today we drove to the YWAM Kona base so Lindsey could register and so we could meet the school leader. We went through all the registration steps and were introduced to the dorm room - which mind you, is an apartment and compared to where we lived in YWAM Brisbane, we've decided the dorms on the Brisbane base are the ghetto. Lovably pink, yellow and periwinkle in color, but the ghetto nonetheless.

We drove back around town and decided we needed to track down this deceased baggage at the airport itself, since the phone calls were getting us nowhere. As we arrived, so was a plane coming in from LA, and as Lindsey stood in line to speak with baggage claim, I watched the conveyor belt. Shouts of hysteria followed as a large green army bag with L BRUNSMAN stitched on the bottom floated through the plastic flaps and out. I think I was more excited then she was. Praise God for sweet happenings and good timing.

SPEAKING of timing...
This is where we're at:
We've moved into the YWAM Kona base, however I am not into the school (because I am still on the waiting list, and mind you the school starts the 4th and today is the 3rd) and am therefore not a student, and am therefore a guest, and have therefore emptied my wallet sufficiently enough to be allowed to stay in Lindsey's dorm room for a maximum of three nights.

I'm pretty much not giving up hope on getting into this school until the door is totally closed - the past 60+ hours have been a roller coaster, but as we were flying over the Pacific and our plane hugged the ocean, I felt the ocean hug me back. And I realized that my faith has not been so strong in so long. Not in a way of "Point blank, I'm in the school" but in a way of total peace. In a way that I actually could ask God for what I wanted without hesitation and honestly speak with Him about what I was feeling - the times when I was at peace, and the times when I was suddenly overwhelmed with fear and questioning and discomfort.

"Let today be today."
I don't think I've ever done that before. I really don't. I'm a dreamer, I'm a jump the gun type of gal, and I'm always skipping steps and looking forward to the ones just beyond. But not now. Not in the past three days. I have let the day be what it is and have enjoyed it for what it is. I have been at peace and I have trusted that no matter what culminates, it will never leave His palms.

If I think about what happens after my three day stay here is up, I kinda freak out, so I'm not even going there. Because that isn't today. Today we will inquire about tomorrow as much as we should, and from there I let it go. From there I let it rest and allow Someone else access to what it will hold.
I am at peace.

So as of right now, I have lived in Australia and been back in Washington, and am now in Hawai'i, waiting word on if I will be able to continue these relationships that have just begun or if it is time for something else. I don't yet know.

Yet today is not quite over.

So that is what has been up with me. As of 6:55pm, January 3rd in Kona Hawai'i.

Just so you know. :)

-Kaarin